Easy

*The title of this post was taken from the Commodores song of the same name*

Kristie has been an on again-off again client of mine since 2010. A fellow business owner, she has been not only a great friend but a trusted professional adviser.

Like many people, Kristie doesn’t enjoy exercise. She knew back in 2010 as she knows now that lasting success in weight loss comes from getting control over food more than getting control over exercise (although, you’re best served to balance both if you can.)

Last week, she reached out to get herself back on plan to get some weight off. We talked about her diet and how she had recently given up alcohol and soda to get things in a better place (this change coupled with increased water intake gave her a 6 lb. loss in one week.)

We also had a small chat about how she should eat. There’s a Subway in our plaza and she asked me what she should order. We went over and looked at the menu and she settled for a 6 inch chicken sub with veggies and mustard plus a bag of Sun Chips (total calories approximately 540.)

Today, we had a more in depth conversation about how her food should look for her to see the progress she hopes for. Like many of my female clients, her intake was projected around 1400 calories per day.

Then, she asked the million dollar question: What does that even look like?

I asked her if she remembered what she ordered from Subway and she did. So, I asked her to break down her day into 3 separate meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner.) I had her place her Subway selection (with chips) into the lunch area. Then I asked her to duplicate the selection for dinner just to see the numbers work out. She added up the two meals and totaled 1080 calories. That leaves her 320 calories for a moderate sized breakfast. I told her she could simply drink a protein shake and eat a banana since she isn’t accustomed to eating breakfast. That would get her day filled.

She then asked: “If I see that I can have 540 calories for dinner, that’s about the same as a Big Mac. Are you saying I can have a Big Mac for dinner instead of a sub and I will still lose weight?”

“Yes.”

“So, it doesn’t really matter what I eat or what time I eat, as long as I can keep my calories in line?”

“That’s correct.”

“There really isn’t anything about good calories or bad calories that I need to be concerned about?”

“Not really. However, you may want to be aware that the foods you’re choosing may not allow you to feel your best. You will lose weight but some foods may not agree with you as much as you might hope. You’ll have to determine that as you go.”

“But as long as I can do things like stop eating chips or not order the fries so I can have things like burgers or be able to eat something I would enjoy at a restaurant, all you care about is calories?”

“That’s right.”

“I can do that.”

There are many, many ways to complicate weight loss.

There are many distractions that keep you from focusing on the numbers that matter.